Nanotechnology in cancertherapy

Nanotechnology may hold the key to controlling many devastating diseases. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a cancer treatment that combines a chemical compound, called a photosensitizer, with a particular type of light to kill cancer cells. The treatment works like this: the photosensitizing agent is injected into the bloodstream. The agent is absorbed by cells all over the body, but stays in cancer cells longer than it does in normal cells. The photosensitizer in the tumor absorbs the light and produces an active form of oxygen that destroys nearby cancer cells.The limitation of this form of cancer treatmbe repeated, and has no long-term side effects. It also isn't as expensive or invasivent is that the light needed to activate most photosensitizers cannot pass through more than one centimeter of tissue. Researchers have now proposed a new PDT system in which the light is generated by x-ray scintillation nanoparticles with attached photosensitizers. When the nanoparticle-photosensitizer conjugates are targeted to tumors and stimulated by x-rays during radiotherapy, the particles generate visible light that can activate the photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy. Therefore, the radiation and photodynamic therapies are combined and occur simultaneously, and the tumor destruction can be more efficient. More importantly, it can be used for deep tumor treatment as x-rays can penetrate through tissue.In this review we discuss the recent advances of cancer nanotechnology with particular attention to nanoparticle systems that are in clinical practice or in various stages of development for cancertherapy.

کلیدواژه ها:

Nanotechnology ، cancer ، Photodynamic therapy